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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Grow Pumpkins Vertically

If you thought you couldn't have a pumpkin patch in a city garden you are wrong. Here is how I grow a variety of pumpkins in my small yard. Think vertical. Growing pumpkin vines do take a lot of room but it you grow your pumpkins vertically on supports, you can keep them from taking over your yard.

Below you can see some of my vines on the left. I have large tomato cages in the planter with tomato plants growing in the center. The vines kind of climb up and through and I trim branches that wander where I don't want them.

In the back here I use the fencing from the old chicken run to support vines now. I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins all on this fence.

Water and feed regularly with compost tea and you will have lots of pumpkins come fall. You should plant your vines from May to mid June for a fall harvest. I take a pile of my homemade compost and make a hill that I plant three seeds in.

Here you can see a healthy one ready to be picked. They say to wait till the vines die back but I just trim them off the vine when they are bright orange and they last fine in the shade till October. I need the space to start new crops so I cut back the vines when I harvest my pumpkins.

One tip for supporting your pumpkins when you grow them vertically is to make slings for them. Here my hubby took an old rag and tied it up around the pumpkin and over the tomato cage. Works wonderfully.

I thought that I'd at least try mini-pumpkins this year and the grand kids were very excited to see the first flowers. I planted a few seeds in a huge container. Did the same with green beans. Too many torrential rains and containers flooding...even dumping excess water out they were too wet. So maybe next year! :) At least everything else ( in regular dirt or raised beds ) is ok :)

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